1.Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a carrier tape with which super-miniaturized electronic components are packed in a manner of a tape-wrapping; said electronic components used for various electronic equipments such as a computer include chip condenser, ceramic condenser, diode, transistor, resistor or the like. The present invention, more particularly, relates to a carrier tape with which it is possible to prevent the reflection of an irradiation light which might cause errors in inspection when the lead wire portion of the electronic components being stored in the carrier tape is inspected with an aid of an optical equipment while keeping said lead wire portion to be adhered to the carrier tape, and it is also possible to conduct the counting the number of pieces of components stored in the storage area in the carrier tape in easier and simpler manners by using a photoelectric tube or the like.
2. Description of the Prior Arts
Super-miniaturized electronic components--which are used for electronic equipment such as computers and include chip condenser, ceramic condenser, diode, transistor, resistor or the like--are conventionally stored on a tape body which is called generally a carrier tape and packed in a manner of a reel-wrapping.
One example of the carrier tape used for the aforementioned reel-wrapping method has been disclosed in an article (Japanese Patent Application for a Utility Article Laid-Open No. Sho-57-157119) in which, for a case of using a base component made of paper, a plurality of storage holes are provided on the tape-shaped base component having a sprocket hole and electronic components are adhered to the adhesive tape which is pasted onto said base plate. In an alternative method, it is known that a double-side adhesive material with a certain shape and size is pasted at a certain interval on a base component having a similar sprocket as the previous case and electronic components are adhered to the double-side adhesive material. Furthermore, it has been disclosed that, for a case of using the base component made of plastics, a carrier tape is fabricated on which a storage box with a certain size is provided at a certain interval on the tape-shaped base component having a sprocket; said storage box is formed by an embossing technique.
An electronic component 1 having a lead portion 2, as seen in FIG. 7 which is an example of the components to be stored in said carrier tape, is normally subjected to an inspection on the lead portion 2 prior to using the electronic component. Namely, although all lead portions 2 are provided with a constant height and in a regular manner at a constant interval as seen in FIG. 7, if said lead portion is slightly bent or misaligned in height, the electronic components having such an irregularly aligned lead portion cannot be used as a high quality product, so that it is necessary to inspect the presence or absence of a deformation on the lead portion. This type of the product inspection is normally conducted by using an optical equipment.
FIG. 6 shows an example in which the electronic component having a lead portion is under inspection. In this example, a plurality of storage holes 5 are provided on the tape-shaped base component 3 having a sprocket hole 4. The electronic components 1 with a lead portion 2 are adhered to a adhesive tape 6 which is pasted to said base component 3.
Namely, the electronic component 1 with a lead portion is held on an adhesive side of the adhesive tape 6 being pasted to the base component 3, and wrapped on a reel. When the lead portion 2 of the electronic component 1 which is stored in this type of carrier tape is required to be inspected, the electronic component 1 being held by the adhesive tape 6 is photographed with an aid of a photographing device 7 while unwrapping said tape. The photographed image signal is then processed to binary signal through an image processing equipment 8 and a presence/absence of deformation on the lead portion will be determined with judging equipment 9, based on a steady image. The electronic component 1 is irradiated by a light source 10 for the photographing purpose.
Accordingly, in a case when the electronic component on a carrier tape is photographed by using a light source 10 for the photographing, the light irradiated by the light source 10 is reflected, and the steady image might become to be unclear because of said reflected light, causing errors in detecting the deformation on the lead portion. Moreover, since longer time might be needed to achieve the above mentioned detection, the inspection cannot be preformed quickly.
Furthermore, in the conventional way of handling the carrier tapes, the carrier tape is needed to be wrapped around a reel at a certain stage of production. The electronic component is stored while unwrapping the carrier tape being wrapped around the reel, and the electronic component will be again wrapped on another reel and packed. Under such a circumstance, it is inconvenient to control storage holes, double-side adhesive tape, or the number of pieces at the component storage area for the storage box. There are another disadvantages associated to the conventional type of the carrier tape. For instance, when altogether 6,000 pieces are about to be stored at the reel around which a carrier tape is wrapped, there would not be any problems if all of 6,000 pieces are stored at one continuous procedure. On the contrary, for example, after 4,256 component pieces out of 6,000 are stored, the storage operation is interrupted, and when a storage operation will be restarted again for storing remaining component pieces, the number of un-used storage components (that is 1,744 pieces) cannot be detected if the number of used components (that is 4,256 pieces) are not counted every time whenever the storage procedure is interrupted. In order to detect the remaining un-used pieces, the un-used carrier tape is needed to be unwrapped and the number should be counted manually. This is obviously a time-consuming and troublesome process. Moreover, it would require more time to detect and control the number of component storage areas of the carrier tape. It is also not easy to control the stocks of the carrier tape.